P4: The Philanthropy Public Policy Portal

NCG is proud to announce the beta release of P4: The Philanthropy Public Policy Portal.

P4 [www.pfour.org] is an online resource designed to help grantmakers:

• understand how government works at the federal, state, and local levels;
• know where to go to connect with government officals and staff; and
• communicate with policymakers in order to convey the value that philanthropy brings to local communities.

Making Connections Between Communities We Serve

In contrast to NCG's previously developed Public Policy Toolkit—which focuses on the legal parameters of public policy advocacy grantmaking, P4 is a resource aimed at encouraging philanthropic–government relations, and building the potential for foundations to inform sound government decision–making. The site contains sections geared towards teaching grantmakers about the policymaking process; teaching policymakers about the philanthropic process; and tools for each audience to use to build better relationships with one another.

Why Now?

Given recent public sector budget shortfalls, there exist both challenges and opportunities for philanthropy to connect with elected officials and their staff. P4 is part of a recent initiative by NCG to support our membership in efforts to build bridges to the policymaking community. Therefore, it is also important to convey to the public sector the important work of foundations in our region and how their grantmaking benefits communities of mutual concern.

How to Get Involved

We are pleased to involve our members in this initial soft launch of P4. At this stage we are happy to roll–out the "For Grantmakers" section—including detailed information about the legislative process and tools and resources to get started on building partnerships. We will continue to improve the content and functionality of the site, so we would like to ask for your feedback about the content and navigation of the site. Please let us know of any suggested edits or additional resources that we may have overlooked.

As we continue to work on the portal, we are looking to collect examples of public–philanthropic partnerships around issue areas of mutual concern and would appreciate any case studies on government relationship building that you might share.

The "For Policymakers" section of P4 will be rolled–out at the end of the year. At that point, NCG will implement a communications strategy to public officials, highlighting the information available through P4 about the valuable work of grantmakers in our region and the communities they support.

As part of ongoing government relations support to members, NCG's leadership will be connecting to public officials at the start of the new legislative calendar year in 2011, using P4 and examples of public–private partnerships as conversation points in developing mutual awareness and potential partnerships. Please let us know if your foundation would like to be a part of such legislative visits and if there are particular legislators you would like us to include in our outreach.

Thanks for investigating what P4 has to offer! NCG is proud of the work of our members in building public–private partnerships and looks forward to advancing cross–sector awareness that encourages sound grantmaking and policy decisions which have a positive impact on California communities.

Explore P4: Philanthropy Public Policy Portal >> 

Learn how P4 compliments NCG's other public policy offerings >>